Barcelona: Lionel Messi pounced on two Manchester United mistakes to score twice and end their hopes of another comeback at Camp Nou, as Barcelona breezed into the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday. After an excellent start, United were undone twice in four minutes by Messi, who first nicked the ball off the careless Ashley Young and then watched as a weak shot from distance squirmed underneath David de Gea.
Philippe Coutinho, in perhaps his best performance of the season, added a third with a curling effort into the top corner and by the end, an outclassed United might have been relieved the score was not more traumatic than 3-0, 4-0 on aggregate. “We had five uncomfortable minutes because they came out strong,” said Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde. “But then there were another 85 minutes where we weren’t bad.” A dizzying opening spell, in which Marcus Rashford had hit the crossbar, was long-forgotten, even if it could offer Barca’s next opponents some encouragement.
Liverpool, who take a 2-0 lead to Porto on Wednesday, are now the most likely obstacle between them and their first Champions League final since they last won this tournament in 2015. Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane might feel emboldened. Instead, United’s pair of early errors made this another night about Messi and ensured any faint hopes of repeating the comeback against Paris Saint-Germain, or even the famous 1999 rescue act against Bayern Munich, on this same pitch, were dashed.
“We said all along this was not going to change overnight,” United’s coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said. Messi now has his 109th and 110th Champions League goals and, potentially, three extra matches to reduce the gap on Cristiano Ronaldo’s 126, after Juventus were dumped out by Ajax. Barcelona’s fans celebrated that too. Around an hour before kick-off, Alex Ferguson was on the side of the pitch, shaking hands with Ryan Giggs and sharing words with Solskjaer, the scorer of the winning goal against Munich here 20 years ago.
They could have hardly have asked for a better start. United were brilliant for eight minutes and could have been ahead within 30 seconds as Rashford raced onto a curving Paul Pogba pass and toed away a shot, which Marc-Andre ter Stegen bravely left to graze his own crossbar. Then, Barcelona had their own eight-minute flurry as United almost conceded a penalty, ruled out after Fred took the ball before bringing down Ivan Rakitic, and then did concede, twice, to Messi.
Both could have been avoided, even if Young’s turn on the edge of his own box was punished in devastating fashion. Young lunged in to atone for his mistake but Messi skipped away from him, poked it through Fred’s legs and then whipped the ball into the corner. The second was simpler. Fred and Scott McTominay closed in on Coutinho and the ball spilled out to Messi, whose dribbling shot with his right foot should have drawn a routine save. Instead, De Gea let it squirm under his body for 2-0.
Messi could have had his hat-trick too after Luis Suarez found him with a superb cutback and there was an almost comical sequence in the second half when the Argentinian played with his United chasers before finally being bundled over by McTominay. Rashford might have made it interesting if he had controlled Pogba’s ball over the top but Barcelona were in exhibition mode, helped by a vintage Coutinho curler after he had cut inside from the left. Messi even attempted a bicycle kick and there were celebrations from the home fans when news went round that Ajax had taken the lead in Turin. They believe this is their year.
Lionel Messi hails demolition, laments slow start
Barcelona: Lionel Messi said Barcelona put on a spectacle in their victory over Manchester United on Tuesday, but warned his teammates they cannot afford any more slow starts if they are to win the competition. Messi scored twice at Camp Nou before Philippe Coutinho added a third for a 3-0 win, 4-0 on aggregate. But United had made a brilliant start before Messi intervened. “We have shown who we are, we put on a spectacle and played a great game,” said Messi after the match. “But we came out cold and looked nervous in the first five minutes.
It was a bit weird until we regained control of the game and we scored the first goal. “We cannot come out like that in a Champions League match because we have the experience of Rome last season and it could (have) made qualifying difficult. Five bad minutes can knock you out.” Barcelona go through to the semi-finals for the first time in four years, where they await the winners of Liverpool and Porto, who play on Wednesday. Liverpool carry a 2-0 lead from the first leg at Anfield. “It will be difficult because these are the best teams,” Messi said. “Those who are there deserve it and it will be very tough against either Liverpool or Porto.”